


Ebb

by yeaka



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Merpeople, Vignette
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-28
Updated: 2020-01-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:07:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 708
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22444570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yeaka/pseuds/yeaka
Summary: Chloe swims.
Relationships: Elijah Kamski/RT600 "Chloe" Android(s)
Comments: 5
Kudos: 12





	Ebb

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don’t own Detroit: Become Human or any of its contents, and I’m not making any money off this.

Another few strokes and she’s there, touching the far side of the pool, emerging from the water into the dry air above her. She doesn’t gasp for breath like Elijah does when he’s been underwater too long, but she does flip her hair back like him, feeling it plaster down against her skin, feeling the water drizzle over each curve and valley as it slithers home. She reaches her arms out across the cool tile and drapes herself half over the side. There’s no point swimming back just yet. She’s already done fifty-eight laps in a row, each precisely the same. 

Under the clear surface, Chloe’s tail curls up against the red siding, her iridescent scales washed warmer in that light. The black and white ceiling flickers with that extra smidgen of colour, the whole room cast in the water’s calm reflections. She knows every bit and piece of it exactly—the smooth walls, the jagged ones, the elaborate artwork and the streamlined furniture. She can see the indentations on the carpet from when Elijah was around last evening, lounging back in his chair and enjoying his whisky. Sometimes he just sits there, watching her, and she paddles back and forth for him, having nothing much else to do. 

Sometimes she does _want_ more things. Sometimes she looks at her empty pool and wishes there were plants, maybe fish, even other androids, _something_ , anything to break up the smooth monotony. But then she checks her protocols, runs a thorough self-diagnostic, and reminds herself that there is no need of anything else to complete her objective. It’s not her place to question her environment. All she needs to do is stay there and be _pretty_ for him. Chloe tries. 

Chloe hears the door open and inclines her head towards it. Sometimes it’s other, similar models, ones with long legs instead of tails, and they come swim with her, occasionally passing on stories of what’s going on in other reaches of the house. But this time it’s Elijah, up early, strolling through in just his boxers. Chloe lets her eyes wander across the lean lines of his handsome body. She knows that he’s pure _flesh_ ; peach skin that dimples and wrinkles atop muscles that can fade, but it doesn’t bother her that he’s so very _different._ Perhaps she’s programmed to find him attractive, or perhaps that’s just a natural conclusion—she doesn’t know anymore. What she does know is that he’s _interesting._

Chloe grasps onto that. She dips back under the water and swims over, emerging right before him. He pads across the white rug, headed for the bottle still set on the table. His hair’s untied, stubble grown out, his earrings in but nothing else—clearly, he has yet to start his morning. She still chimes, “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” Elijah smoothly drawls back, and even his voice makes her thirium pump work that little bit faster. She watches him bend down to fetch his drink, then eyes the taut lines of his back when he takes a swig. He pauses afterwards to gaze out of the window, surveying his domain: all the frigid ice right to the tower he created. He’s a brilliant man in so many ways.

He swims well too. And he looks good with the water clinging to him, gluing his trunks to his thighs. Chloe parts her lips, and before she knows what’s happening, she asks, “Will you join me in the pool today?”

Elijah pauses. He turns to look at her, expression as bored as ever, but the evidence of his surprise is in how long he takes to answer. He counters, “Do you want me to?”

Chloe has to think about it. She can feel her LED flickering, the yellow reflection bouncing off the water in her peripherals. She knows she shouldn’t _want_ anything. But she looks at Elijah, and she _does_. She answers, dazed, “Yes.”

Elijah dons a slow grin that only adds to his allure. He looks _pleased_ , perhaps proud of her, and that’s _exhilarating_ —it’s like Chloe’s fulfilled a hundred orders at once. She smiles hopefully back up at him. 

Elijah muses, “Alright then.” He sets his whisky down and strolls over to the pool, fulfilling her one dream.


End file.
